


magenta, rose-tinted

by cirrus (themorninglark)



Category: Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 12:12:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8055859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus
Summary: So magenta fell from Kaoru's lips, glossed over with rosewater chapstick and tinted with the last time we skipped school, skipped pebbles across the lake and found this hiding place, and the time before and all the times before that, and Hikaru tipped his head back into his twin's lap, shifting closer.
(written for the way you said I love you prompt: on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, the late sunlight glowing in your hair)





	magenta, rose-tinted

**Author's Note:**

> This is for goretwins @ tumblr, who made this request ages ago. I'm really glad to finally fill it, after a fresh read of the manga; these two give me Many Feelings. Hope you get to see this, and that you like it!

"Magenta," Kaoru breathed.

He breathed this into Hikaru's hair, carding it through his fingers; he breathed this like a curiosity found under a leaf in their garden, and there was something of that ladybug shimmer in his voice, bright and jewelled in the summer's stray sunbeams. Of course, they had been young, then, and they had paid no heed to the freedoms of summer, for freedoms were theirs for the taking and the wild, wanton wasting.

So _magenta_ fell from Kaoru's lips, glossed over with rosewater chapstick and tinted with the _last time we skipped school_ , skipped pebbles across the lake and found this hiding place, and the time before and all the times before that, and Hikaru tipped his head back into his twin's lap, shifting closer.

He said, a small frown creasing the corners of his mouth, "I was gunning for _burgundy_. Or something more like... like the _coppery_ kind of pink."

"Well," Kaoru said, cheerfully, "I like it. I think this suits you."

The upward flick of Hikaru's gaze, the petulant furrow in his brow, told Kaoru just what Hikaru thought of _that_ , and of this latest reckless misadventure in salon dye jobs.

"'Least it's not _strawberry_ ," Kaoru added.

" _You've_ been strawberry before!"

"Yeah, but I wore it better than _you_ would."

Hikaru huffed out an indignant protest. It was too hot, Kaoru knew, for him to do anything more. It was too hot for either of them to do anything more. He longed for a popsicle, the kind that broke cleanly into two down the middle and tasted like bubbles. He settled for Hikaru reaching up to chuck him under his chin, the gesture rough and awkwardly angled and _oh so familiar._

That'd do, too. The backs of Hikaru's knuckles were knobbly and streaked with traces of dry mud. This close, the smell reminded him of other afternoons they'd stolen, shared and stashed under wraps like the games they played, the games they made others play with them. There were no winners, only rules that they shaped and bent like blades of grass beneath their careless, thoughtless touch.

"That's stupid. We have the same face," Hikaru pointed out.

Kaoru shot him an impish grin in response. He leaned back. The ivy twining up the pavilion's snow-white columns tickled his cheek, raced for the sky in its patient way, and Kaoru let his hands wander from Hikaru's hair. They found their way downwards to Hikaru's shoulders instead, grazed collarbones peeking out from beneath an oversized tank top, and remained where they fell, wrapping Hikaru in a loosely held embrace.

"I want a popsicle," said Hikaru.

Kaoru exhaled, let out a low hum of satisfaction. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"Yeah, I knew that. _You_ said it first, last time."

Hikaru did not ask, _do you remember_ , for of course Kaoru remembered, and it had been Hikaru, then, who had dusted the mud off Kaoru's knees and taken his hand, dragged him to his feet and led the way into the house in search of their elusive prize.

 _let's sneak into the kitchen through the back door_ , he'd said, with a sly smile the mirror of Kaoru's own. They had made it an afternoon to remember that ended in shared stomachaches and lost appetites for dinner, but it had been worth it, worth it, to stain their tongues blue and take turns showing each other how funny they looked, till they flopped back on the steps of that pavilion, bathed in the late afternoon's blossoming warmth.

They had stayed there till the crimson sunset, holding hands. When they finally peeled apart, it was with sweet, sticky, prints all over their entwined fingers, and Hikaru had licked Kaoru's and then pressed his palm to his face, quick as the last light escaping over the horizon.

Kaoru sighed, somewhat dramatically.

"We don't have many days like this left," he said.

"What," Hikaru snorted, " _Tuesdays?_ "

"Yes, _yes_ , Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and—"

" _Kaoru._ "

Hikaru's voice was serious, then, and Kaoru halted his melancholic recitation, looked down to meet Hikaru's gaze. He was squinting upwards, a _picture_ framed in the soft gold of dandelion flecks floating towards the sun.

"Do you _really_ think this colour suits me?" asked Hikaru.

"Hikaru!" Kaoru gasped. "Would I lie to you?"

Hikaru smiled, a curve that scored a fine, filament-thin mark in Kaoru's heart. Another notch next to all the others.

 _Oh,_ thought Kaoru. _That's how we're playing this game._

He did not have to answer, and neither did Hikaru. Like those fingerprints they'd left all over each other, so many skipped schooldays ago, the truth lingered, stitched into the threads that bound them, and Hikaru had surprised him again with his understanding of things.

( _Yes, to make you happy; no, to make you happy too; yes, and no, because I love you._ )

Kaoru raised a hand to Hikaru's hair once more, swept the strands from his eyes and flicked him lightly on his forehead.

"Yes. I really do," he said.

"Good," said Hikaru. "Then stop being _gloomy_. Enjoy it _while it lasts_."

Kaoru's eyebrows shot up. "What, are you changing colour again so soon?"

Hikaru shrugged. He closed his eyes, reached for Kaoru's hand and pulled it down, close to his chest. If he had yanked any harder, Kaoru would have fallen forward himself.

"Who knows when I'll get bored? We have to keep moving forward, don't we?"

Yet even as Hikaru spoke, Kaoru felt his grip tightening; an affirmation, an anchor to what remained of this afternoon, and where they met began to melt away like one of those popsicles, and Kaoru did not know any more if Hikaru was holding him, or if it was he who was holding Hikaru—

All he knew was that they were _here_ , and here was Hikaru pressed into his hand like a promise, a refrain. 

_Yes. No. I—_

"Yeah," said Kaoru, softly, for he heard everything, and everything more.

**Author's Note:**

> (Crossposted to [my ficlet blog](http://larkwords.tumblr.com/post/150532124623/ouran-high-school-host-club-hitachiin-twins-i))


End file.
